In the beginning I wasn’t too interested in whatever Bluesky might be – the whole idea of yet another social network by the same people who ran Twitter into the ground wasn’t too enticing. And with my enthusiasm for the principles of the IndieWeb I was quite happy to look at Mastodon again when it was clear that Twitter wasn’t the place for me anymore and that I was looking for something besides blogs and my feed reader.
So I am happily posting there, untroubled by all the things that people don’t like about it – I don’t have a problem with the idea of different instances and I’m not super interested in search, “discovery” or following celebrities.[1] As long as “my people” are around and I can get the kind of ambient intimacy that has been the main reason for my love for the web, I’m content.[2] I’m not looking for “speech and reach” I’m looking for community[3].
But of course at some point fomo hits.
While I don’t really care about being an early adopter of these things anymore, I also don’t not care. When I read an article like the amazing Beamer Dressman Bodybag and I see an absolutely unhinged phrase like “emu lesbian finally milkshake ducked,” it does tickle the part of my brain that likes to be in on the joke. In a good way when I understand the phrase, in a not so good way when I don’t.
And now that I am not on bluesky, I am not in on the joke and it bums me out. Worse than that: it bums me out on a meta level. I’m annoyed that it bums me out. I really don’t want to use that app. Everything I read about it sounds like something that makes my life better by not being in it. And yet.
So I hid my question for an invitation in a little jokey post, well aware how dumb and desperate it is[4] to ask for these things.
Oh well. The weather is nice, at least for the next couple of hours, so I guess I should go for a walk and rather look at the real blue sky for a while.
- I’m not above it, either. Once in a while it is entertaining to read what they have to say. Plus they often post selfies and they tend to be attractive people and who doesn’t like to see that on their feed once in a while? ↩
- As in happy. Not as in something being created for consumption. ↩
- This is probably a whole other blog post. ↩
- Maybe not is. But at least looks. ↩
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